Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Frankly, Mr Field ...

He means the time when the Kenyan and Ugandan Asians were expelled, and arrived in a Britain for which they had passports, where they were called “Paki”, and where they became some of the most successful and dynamic citizens this nation has possessed. And this is used by a Labour minister, a Labour minister, to attack past Conservative governments for softness on immigration! I wanted to throw up.

7 Comments:

I can find no fault with that at all, though bb will no doubt encourage us to read carefully for signs of deceptive reasonableness.

It's a particularly important point that the immigration debate continues to have racial overtones not (as is often claimed) because liberals claim racism to shut down debate, but because those racial overtones are present in the rhetoric used by mainstream critics of immigration, including the current minister for immigration.

Totally agreed - it is a very good piece. And Simon is right, politicians are fond of pointing to the likes of the BNP and warning of the dangers of extremists whipping up racial hatred but they really aren't the problem - the bigger problem is the way that immigration is discussed by our politicians and media. On the front page of the Express the other day there was condemnation of prince Harry's racist remarks while the main headline was (yet again) that immigrants are taking our jobs.

the bigger problem is the way that immigration is discussed by our politicians and media. On the front page of the Express the other day there was condemnation of prince Harry's racist remarks while the main headline was (yet again) that immigrants are taking our jobs.

I wonder if this ties in in some way to what Splintered Sunrise was saying a few days ago regarding most people's consciousness as regards race and gender issues and how they tend to come across as a emotionally-driven squeamishness towards certain words, rather than dealing with wider issues of oppression. I think that could certainly apply as regards the immigration debate in this country; no-one, not even the Mail, would directly call immigrants "lazy wog scum", for instance, but the way the debate is framed certainly gives you the impression that that is what they would definitely like to say. And a lot of politicians, whether or not they believe it, play into this.

Missed a bit; what they would like to say and the policies suggested when it comes to immigration definitely pander to those kind of prejudices, which is your whole "material oppression" side of things, but that is a much more acceptable sphere for debate.

It's certainly what's stoking the fire. There are countless examples of off-the-record stuff that has leaked out amongst the decency-esque. Most notably Martin Amis . It's fitting because (although he's not a politican or journalist) it indicates, to me anyway, that decency is just shit-scared of muslims, and it would be best for everyone if they were all locked up.